THE Star Wars prequels are near-universally reviled. We all know that.

The acting is wooden, the writing is ridiculous and George Lucas was obviously struggling with a wicked CGI addiction when he made them.

But the most frustrating thing about the prequel trilogy isn’t Lucas’s crummy dialogue or even Jar Jar Binks. It’s the wasted potential. The fact that those three movies could have been even better than the original Star Wars trilogy.

Ewan McGregor. One of the few actors who did well in the prequels.Source:News Limited

The prequels gave Lucas a chance to create a more complex galaxy, and to turn Vader into an even more interesting villain. If you want to know how awesome a “good guy falling into evil” storyline can be, just listen to someone rave about Breaking Bad.

Lucas tried to do the right things, but his execution was rotten, and as any self-respecting geek knows, there is no “try” in Star Wars.

If only we could go back and change these things about the prequel movies. They might have been awesome. Or at least acceptable.

When you actually understand it, Palpatine’s grand scheme to grab control of the galaxy is quite ingenious. Over a period of at leat 10 years, he creates a huge army of completely loyal and unquestioning troops, then orchestrates a galactic civil war.

He uses that war to spread the Jedi, who are the only real threat to his power, throughout the galaxy. Each is isolated and surrounded by Palpatine’s loyal soldiers. Then, at the right moment, he orders those soldiers to kill the Jedi, wiping out pretty much the whole lot of them in one day.

Revenge of the Sith needs a scene that explains the plan succinctly, instead of leaving viewers to piece it together themselves. That might sound condescending, but really, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of clarity. All three prequels made us assume too many things that should have been spelled out.

Just spell it out for us, Palpatine.Source:News Limited

2. SPEAKING OF PALPATINE, ADD MORE OF HIM

Incidentally, Ian McDiarmid’s performance as Senator, then Chancellor, then Emperor Palpatine was easily the strongest of the trilogy. It was soooo far removed from the cliched evil guy he plays in Return of the Jedi (except for that bit at the end of episode three when he keeps laughing like a lunatic).

Prequels Palpatine is funny, charming and sinister. He’s a consummate, subtle schemer. Every time he’s on the screen he’s fun to watch, and that means he should be on the screen even more. A great villain does far more to make a movie than a great hero.

This was the best scene of the prequel trilogy ... even with Hayden Christensen in it.Source:News Limited

3. GET RID OF THE STUPID CHARACTERS

We’re not just talking about Jar Jar. What the hell is General Grievous doing in the series? What purpose does that inexplicably asthmatic circus freak serve? You’d swear Lucas just stuck him in the third film so he had an excuse to give someone four lightsabers. That is NOT a good enough reason.

And yes, then there’s Jar Jar. The less said about him the better.

What a pointless character.Source:News Limited

4. DON’T MAKE PADME DIE FOR NO FREAKING REASON

Padme is a strong-willed, stubborn woman. The idea that she would “lose the will to live” as she’s giving birth to twin children, who obviously need to be raised by someone, is ludicrous.

And the idea that this loss of will would cause her to die, despite being medically healthy, is so implausible that it makes the rest of Star Wars look like a dry history lesson. Even the bit where the nine-year-old kid flies a starfighter.

Why not say she died from a crushed windpipe, an injury she suffered when Anakin choked her? The irony of that would actually add to the story. Heck, I’d settle for any cause of death that makes some sort of sense.

Use special effects galore for the space battles and wide, open landscapes. But there are indoor scenes in the third film that are entirely CGI, and it’s painfully obvious. The whole point of having good CGI is that you’re too absorbed in the film to really notice it’s CGI.

Lucas should have constructed a few more sets. It’s that simple.

CGI is fine in space, OK?Source:News Limited

6. MAKE ANAKIN’S FALL PLAUSIBLE

Anakin’s sudden jump from misguided and impressionable young Jedi to ruthless, evil Sith Lord just doesn’t work. One moment he’s running off to the Jedi Council to tell them Palpatine’s the bad guy, the next he’s “pledging himself” to the guy’s teachings and slaughtering children. All of this happens in about 10 minutes of screen time, and it jars.

The fall doesn’t have to be so clear cut. Anakin shouldn’t go from “confused but basically good” to “pure evil” so quickly. Keep it subtle.

Hayden Christensen’s wooden acting is another matter entirely.

Wow, that eye makeover happened quickly.Source:News Limited

7. MAKE THE ROMANCE LESS CHEESY

Some of the lines between Anakin and Padme are just ... revolting. Consider this example:

Lucas packed the prequels with nods to his earlier films. The best example is Boba Fett’s origin story, which consumes way too much space in Attack of the Clones, but there are smaller moments sprinkled throughout the prequels. Think of Obi Wan saying “Hello there,” when he drops down to confront Grievous — he says the same thing when we first meet him in episode four.

They might make a few fans jump with excitement, but those stray pieces of dialogue often jar with the script, and the unnecessary origin stories take up screen time that could be used more efficiently.

Of course, in an ideal world, Lucas would have employed someone else to take the raw material from his imagination and turn it into a workable script or two.

This is Darth Maul. He’s not relevant here, I just really wanted to use a photo of him.Source:Supplied

9. GET RID OF MEANINGLESS PLOT THREADS

The climactic scenes in The Phantom Menace follow four different, concurrent battles — in space (Anakin), in the palace (Padme), in the field (Jar Jar) and in that crazy place with lots of force fields (Obi Wan). Most of the action is just meaningless noise, and Obi Wan is the only character who actually grows during the final scenes of the film.

That is the prequel trilogy in a nutshell. It’s full of “exciting” action scenes that add no depth to the plot. If these scenes were replaced by alternatives which actually developed the main characters, the films would feel completely different.